Some Richmond District residents are signing an online petition to prevent the Geary Street Jack in the Box from reclaiming their after hours permit.
The fast food restaurant, located on the corner of Geary and 11th Avenue, has been a longtime sore spot for local residents and police. Until recently, the restaurant was open 24 hours a day and was a magnet for rowdy patrons leaving nearby bars at 2am.
In the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, a fight inside the Jack in the Box later led to a brutal hit and run accident on the corner of 9th and Geary. The victim, 29 year old Albert Bartal, remains hospitalized in serious condition. Police eventually arrested Eduardo Shaparo Esquivel, a 22-year old South San Francisco man who was identified from security footage from inside the Jack in the Box during the initial fight.
Since the incident, it was revealed that the Jack in the Box was staying open 24 hours a day, despite not having the required city permits to do so. As a result, they were forced to cut their hours and close at 2am every night.
But the restaurant is returning to the Entertainment Commission on January 10 to ask that their after hours permit be reinstated. A new permit would enable them to stay open between 2am and 6am every night.
That prompted action from David Lee, president of the Richmond District Police Advisory Board, who began circulating a petition late last week, asking that the Commission deny the restaurant’s permit. His goal is to obtain 1,000 signatures in time for the hearing.
As neighbors, we believe that the neighborhood would be much better off if Jack in the Box closed between the hours of 2am and 4am. Moreover, the repeated police calls at Jack in the Box drain precious police resources from the rest of the neighborhood in the late hours when they are most needed.
Earlier this year, the manager at the Jack in the Box worked with the Richmond Police Advisory Board to make security improvements to the property, including improved lighting, adding security guards on Thursday through Saturday nights, and trimming overgrown landscaping.
Nevertheless, the location remains a source of distress to nearby residents and police who respond to regular incident calls from the restaurant.
The Jack in the Box after-hours permit application will be on the agenda at the January 10, 2012 meeting of the Entertainment Commission, which takes place at 6:30pm in room 400 at City Hall. The online petition urging the Commission to deny the permit can be found here.
Sarah B.
where’s the petition I can sign to ask nimby screwballs to STFU and quit trying to run everybody’s lives?
I’m no fan of JitB or late night annoyances, but I question whether the obvious solution makes the most sense. I’d like to hear some alternate solutions.
Closing JitB late night would solve the specific issues, but what does it do in the bigger picture? San Francisco has very few all night places. There’s an appeal of a “city that never sleeps”.
Disorderly drunks: one can say “close the bars”, but then where does it end?
How about SFPD trying to make some money off the situation? They can stake out the place and cite people for DUI or public intoxication (?).
@ cf- sign my name too
One person’s “rowdy” is another person’s “it’s a city”
One solution might be to close one or more of the more rowdy clubs on Clement St. One place in particular, named Rockit Room, comes immediately to mind. The place draws a low-life, rowdy crowd that hang outside in the street. Hoodies, loud-mouthed drunkards, cigarette smokers who found the *outside* air for a block in either direction, etc. I really feel sorry for the residents in the immediate vicinity. The owner of that place needs to get his customers *under control*, or he should be shut down.
In addition to Rockit Room, there are quite a few bars in the immediate vicinity, so the above would be only a partial (although welcome) solution.
I like Ron’s idea of running DUI checks, and being relentless about it. The sad thing is that the guy running the jack in the Box has tried to be compliant, but several dozen drunken and/or disorderly persons make that place a nightmare for a few hours, every night.
I, for one, would love to see a mandatory device in cars that forces a test for alcohol and drugs (including narcotics) before letting the driver start the car. People on legal medication would have to be exempted by special permits.
More: we need *mandatory* TWO YEAR license suspensions for *first time* DUI’s – NO exceptions! A second offense delivers a LIFETIME suspension. I’m sick and tired of repeat offenders buying their way out of consequences by purchasing an attorney to work the system.
More: The bar owners need to take some responsibility; they need to stop “filling it up” when someone has had too much, and that should be WAY before a person is falling down drunk, or getting drunk/rowdy.
More: This is also an opportunity for a private jitney system – apart from taxis – to simply pick people up at nominal rates. This could be a series of 10-15 outfitted vans (like the Supershuttle vans, but a lot lower level) that pack ’em in and deliver drunks, one-by-one, back to their homes. This is the most unlikely idea, because it would take a lot to get something like this off the ground.
Thanks CF, give us your address we’ll come hang out all night in front of your place
Why should Jack in the Box be penalized for the criminal acts of the public? This business is not responsible for the actions of felons or would-be felons.
look at the idiot “petition” … most of the sigs are from Daly City etc. LOL = boundless idiot internet-enabled pseudo-nimbyism
Hey Phil.
I DJ at the Rockit Room. You have no idea what you are talking about. It’s one of the best-run clubs in the city. They have VERY few problems for a club of that size; the bouncers there keep everyone under control, and frankly I find it offensive that you refer to people who go there as low-life and rowdy.
That shows a bigoted and frankly, ignorant attitude on your part.
God forbid there are “rowdy” people at a bar. I suppose you think they should all take an Ambien before going to listen to the acts there instead? We wouldn’t want any “horseplay”, now would we.
just say NO! i need my cheap shitty tacos@3am!! poonjab
“J Said”, I agree 100% with “Phil”…I have walked past the Rockit Room and on some nights when they host specific genres of music the crowd is very aggressive, with a ‘would be’ gangster attitude and very unpleasant
You might DJ there but you are not DJ’ing at this location every night of the month which is why you may not be seeing these problems.
hey partyhound@#5 why dont you give us your address ill stop by with cf.
The type of music the Rockit Room usually has on weekends is generally Reggae or rock bands. It is NOT a hip hop club. The facts are that when you have hip hop clubs, violence often follows. Jelly’s was shut down because they had gang fights often after having hip hop acts, especially with people coming from across the bay, even while on other nights they would have latin or Salsa nights. There was a club shut down in north beach last year because of violent crowds, and it was mostly hip hop on the weekends.
The Rockit Room is known for its Reggae live acts and people come from all over to see world-famous performers there. The crowds there, while they may look rough, are actually very mellow, for obvious reasons. I go there frequently on the weekends and have actually never seen anything serious occur there. I’ve been there for three years and in that time we’ve had only three incidences where someone got belligerent and was asked to leave on the nights when I play, which is actually pretty good for a bar. There are waaay more aggressive and problematic bars in the city; if I had a buck for each time I’ve seen a cop outside of Buckshot or Trader Sam’s I’d be a rich man. Trader Sams is well known throughout the city as a place to go for one thing: to get completely smashed.
I’d be interested to know the frequency at which cops are called to individual locations in the city. My suspicion is that Rockit Room is very low on that list.
Jack in the box didn’t CAUSE the problem… the bar where the guys were at BEFORE going to the ‘box is who should be looked at… how much alcohol did they serve before turning drunk idiots out into the streets. Come on folks, we are a big city…. lets figure out how to live/play/enjoy life without over regulating EVERYTHING! I have been to the jack in the box very, very early in the am when on my way to SFO, they are the only thing open in the area.
This petition is being run through a blog called Fix the Richmond. It also conveniently happens to connected to David Lee who has made it no secret that he intends to run against Eric Mar for District 1 Supervisor this fall. I realize that Eric Mar hasn’t been everyone’s perfect idea of a Supervisor. But I do know that he has been proactively working with Jack in the Box on this and trying to put together solutions many of the issues that people here have already brought up, like the bars after hours and neighborhood safety.
I applaud any person or organization with the good intentions to want to fight for this neighborhood and all of it’s troubles; lord knows that we need something like that . . . but lets call a spade a spade here. This petition and blog have no intent to actually look out for the best interest of Richmond District residents. It’s nothing more than a sham created by a guy with political aspirations playing on people’s fear and emotion to make himself look like a neighborhood savior in order to get their votes in November. Don’t buy it.